SignPuddle Network

Developer API

swserver, v1.3.0
May 2nd, 2016

About

SignWriting is the international script for writing the sign languages of the world.
The SignWriting Server provides online resources for SignWriting applications and users. The server accepts HTTP requests and responds with SVG or JSON data. The SignWriting Server is built with the PHP SLIM Framework v2.6.

The primary site is available on the Center for Sutton Movement Writing server.

Query string transformation to regular expressions

Query strings are a concise representation of a much larger and detailed set of regular expressions.
Each query string is transformed into one or more regular expressions that can be used to search a text of Formal SignWriting.
Additionally, Formal SignWriting strings can be converted into several types of query strings, each of which can be transformed into regular expressions.

Countries of the world

The countries of the world are described with SVG shapes and flag images.
Listings of languages and puddle collections are available for each country.

Puddle collections and sign entries

All of the SignPuddle Online data is available as SQLite 3 databases.
These databases can be downloaded individually.
The various puddle collections can be listed, limited by sign language or individual code.
For each sign language, a default public dictionary has been selected so that ISO 639-3 codes can be used rather than a puddle code.
With a puddle query, individual entries can be access with sign language directly.
With a puddle search, individual entries can be access with spoken language.
Additional search options are available for listings of individual signs and terms.
Additionally, entries can be retrieved by the dates created or updated.

Installation

Copy the SignWriting Server files to the root web server directory or to a sub-directory.

Requirements

Any server that supports PHP and SQLite 3 will be able to run the SignWriting Server.

API Blueprint

The API Blueprint for the Guide is embedded in the main index.php file. The API Blueprint for the Example document is created using ‘curl’ with ‘curl-trace-parser’.

JSON Data Examples

The SignWriting Server includes example API calls encoded as JSON data. These examples are used to create the API Blueprint for the Example document and the JavaScript function calls for the Run HTML page.

Author

Reference

The Formal SignWriting character encoding used in SignMaker is defined in an Internet Draft submitted to the IETF: draft-slevinski-signwriting-text.
The document is improved and resubmitted every 6 months.
The character design has been stable since January 12, 2012.
The current version of the Internet Draft is 06.
The next version is planned for May 2016.

Epilogue

This is a work in progress. Feedback, bug reports, and patches are welcomed.

License

MIT

To Do

expand API for users

expand API for create, update, and delete

Version History

1.3.0 - May 2nd, 2016: new world group, added listings for puddle signs and terms